Finnie in charge of Portsmouth trip - Referee Tuesday, 11th Aug 2026 10:05 by Clive Whittingham Will Finnie is the man in the middle for QPR’s opening Championship fixture away to Portsmouth on Saturday. Referee >>> Will Finnie (Luton) Assistants >>> Nigel Lugg (Surrey) and Michael Webb (Surrey) Fourth Official >>> Craig Hicks (Surrey) HistoryOxford 0 QPR 0, Tuesday January 20, 2026, Championship The last thing anybody present needed was another ten minutes added to the end. The second last thing was another QPR injury. Unfortunately a nasty looking knock and extended treatment for Brazilian left back Esquerdinha provided both – Paul Smyth and Will Vaulks both saw yellow for scuffling in the aftermath of the original challenge. As on Saturday, some of the refereeing from this time Will Finnie was utterly perplexing. Three times a throw in on halfway changed hands, and then when QPR were eventually allowed to proceed Nicolas Madsen was obviously pulled back as he surged towards the area and play on was waved. The histrionics and performative nonsense prior to every corner, followed almost entirely by the decision he was always going to give anyway, was infuriating. Not a good night at the football. Not a defeat, which is positive number two. Injury hit midtable team doing injury hit midtable things. Awkward away games navigated, two homers to come. But it was, all in all, dreadful stuff, and anybody pretending otherwise is kidding themselves. If Oxford do succeed in staying in the Championship for 2026/27 then let’s have a truce. Shake hands, two points each, don’t play the games. Don’t play the games ever, ever again. Subs not used: Ingram, Yonak, Leigh, Romeny Yellow Cards: Vaulks 58 (fighting) QPR: Walsh 7; Mbengue 6, Dunne 7, Cook 6, Esquerdinha 5 (Norrington-Davies 65, 5); Dembele 4 (Vale 85, -), Madsen 5, Hayden 5 (Field 75, 5), Smyth 6; Bennie 5, Kone 5 (Kolli 76, 5) Subs not used: Adamson, Edwards, Hamer, Morgan, Smith Yellow Cards: Dembele 55 (delaying restart), Smyth 58 (fighting) Referee – Will Finnie (Luton) 5 Probably not quite up to this level at this stage of his career – some strange stuff across the board here. I suppose if we’re saying you’ve got to cut young players like Daniel Bennie slack while they learn the ropes and get up to speed in the Championship you do have to afford that same empathy to referees starting out in their careers. Coventry 1 QPR 0, Tuesday February 11, 2025, Championship Referee Finnie had been, frankly, a pain in the arse dealing with corner situations all night. Interminable hours on end wasted with him warning, pre-warning, warning again, yellow carding and generally pissing about in the crowd scene before every sodding free kick and corner. Coventry hit the post with a firm first half header but had already been penalised. The wrestling, pushing and shoving was out of control all night, eventually resulting in a scuffle between Jimmy Dunne and Ephron Mason-Clark and bookings all round. Rangers wanted fouls on both Paul Nardi and Steve Cook from Rudoni's final delivery of the evening but, for me, neither of them were. Both far too busy trying to make out they’d been fouled rather than defending their line, and the goal scored by Bobby Thomas at the back post with basically the very final kick of the game was legitimate. Cook looks a bit ropey to me post injury. It was a fine time for Finnie to come over all lenient and passive but, even if there was a foul there, if you piss away four corners of your own in stoppage time you can’t be bitching and moaning if the opposition then get one, take it properly, and score. Rangers had done it to themselves, no excuses. Coventry: Dovin 7; Thomas 6, Binks 6, Kitching 6 (Eccles 64, 6); van Ewijk 5, Torp 6 (Mason-Clark 74, 7), Grimes 6, Dasilva 6; Sakamoto 7, Simms 5 (Thomas Asante 64, 6), Rudoni 7 Subs not used: Allen, Bassette, Bidwell, Rodrigues, Collins, Latibeaudiere Goals: Thomas 90+4 (assisted Rudoni) Yellow Cards: Kitching 11 (foul), Grimes 62 (foul), Mason-Clark 90+2 (fighting) QPR: Nardi 7; Dunne 6, Cook 5, Edwards 6, Paal 5; Colback 6 (Varane 60, 5), Field 5; Smyth 6 (Yang 71, 6), Chair 5, Saito 7 (Morgan 81, -); Frey 6 (Lloyd 60, 5) Subs not used: Ashby, Fox, Madsen, Morrison, Walsh Yellow Cards: Paal 25 (foul), Dunne 90+2 (fighting) Referee – Will Finnie (Luton) 5 A total lack of grip and control on what was going on in the box under every set piece for both sides. I’ve heard a lot of QPR fans saying variations of Cook and Nardi were fouled for the Cov goal. For me they weren’t. You’ve got to be stronger, particularly your big, experienced centre back, and the goal was right to stand. But having spent all night to that point being a pedantic arsehole, every corner and free kick into the box turned into some long drawn out affair with pre-warnings, warnings, cards and free kicks, to suddenly come over all lenient at that point was, to say the least, inconvenient. StatsWill Finnie joined the EFL list in 2017 and has since clocked up more than 100 games across the three leagues as well as refereeing the FA Vase final at Wembley between Great Wakering and Romford. The 30-year-old made his Championship debut in April last year in Millwall 3-1 Cardiff. He finished 2023/24 with 128 yellows (3.2) and seven reds from a chunky diary of 40 appointments. Nine yellows and two reds at Wimbledon 2-1 Mansfield in League Two was by far his biggest total. In 2024/25 he booked 115 (3.08) and sent five off in 38 games. Four of those red cards came in his last three games of the regular season and he finished up with a play-off final between Wimbledon and Walsall at Wembley. Of those, 15 games were at Championship level. Portsmouth drew 2-2 at Swansea and won 2-0 at Oxford in the two games they had with him that year. In total 32 games last year with a very busy second half to the year (he’d only done 12 by the time we had him at Oxford). He finished with 123 yellows (3.84) and a single red topped out by seven yellows in the insane Conference title decider between Rochdale and York. He also got the League Two play-off semi-final between Chesterfield and Notts County. QPR are 0-1-1. Only Oxford (18) have had this referee more than Portsmouth (12) and their record with him is very good – eight wins, three draws and just a single defeat. If you enjoy LoftforWords, please consider supporting the site through a subscription to our Patreon or tip us via our PayPal account loftforwords@yahoo.co.uk. Pictures - Reuters Connect Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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